Six Against the World
by Setaflow
Summary: Zombie AU. It's been a year since the world got overrun, and Mari Takahashi knows that she's in trouble. It's hard to keep up with not only the infected, but every human in the country wanting each other dead. And Mari knows that, whether she wants it or not, she's going to need some help to survive. But with backup comes responsibility, danger, and a conspiracy.
1. Prologue

**So, if there was one thing I promised myself to NEVER do, it was write a fanfic about real-life people. ****But, lo and behold, I had an idea while I was in the shower and this was the outcome. **

**So, in glorious cliche fashion, I present to you all my outtake on a Zombie AU with the Smosh crew.**

**Some things to keep in mind is:**

**-All canon pairings, so no Ianthony/Marhinki etc. (I'll try to find a way to fit Kalel, Melanie, Peter, Bexy, Erin, and Lasercorn's wife in somehow)**

**-Since this is an AU, some characters are going to be a bit OoC with their real-life counterparts (*coughMaricough*). I'll try to be as accurate as possible with the rest, so don't hate me yet.**

**-This is a third-person story with alternating POVs, but the first chapter will be focusing on Mari. The others will join later.**

**-And lastly, this is rated "M" for a reason. Lots of cursing. And lots of violence and blood. Hopefully some of it will be badass. But just giving a fair warning to y'all.**

**And so now, here is the ****prologue, or as I like to call it, "Exposition Central."**

**Enjoy!**

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It all started with a hole in the ground.

Back in May of 2013, a large well of water was discovered deep in the Earth's mantle, about 3 times as much as all the water in the planet's ocean, and all fresh. At first, many people were ecstatic about all the new possible water source; debates went up on CNN and FOX news about possibly finding a way under the earth's crust to dig some of the water up, and the United States collaborated with other countries to find a digging spot. And later that year, there was an expedition deep in the belly of southern Ohio. A successful one. Quite a few tons of water were brought up from just under the feet of those who lived there. All of it was taken to labs around the countries to be tested, including a small one on the outskirts of Sacramento, and a big one in Washington D.C.

But no one could have had foreseen what was in the water.

Millions upon millions of tiny little worm-like parasites, what the scientists called fleshers, called the deep waters in the Earth's mantle their home. They were impossible to see, and once ingested, something…terrible…would happen. At first, it was simply a contained mutation with some test subjects, in the hopes that others could find a cure. But it spread. The water containing the fleshers was somehow made available to the public without scientific consent. More and more people got infected. The flesher would hook into your brain. Turn you into something else. Something that craved flesh. A real-life zombie.

And in typical zombie fashion, if you got bit, you turned into one of them. The fleshers bred quickly in your already infected brain, and since they lived in water, the eggs would flow down and hatch in the saliva of their human host. So it became simple: get bit, get shot. That was the new way of life.

If you were bitten or infected, then first would come the blindness. Something not even glasses could heal. The first thing the government after the supposed purging of all the infected was to eliminate all people losing their eyesight, young and old. Then came the mutation. Teeth became elongated and sharp. Eyes sunk back into your skull and were covered back up like scars, rendering all eyesight useless. Skin became pale, and then rotten; essentially, you looked like a clothed, walking piece of rotten steak. Vocal chords became distorted, so the only noise that came out were grunts and shrieks that would somehow draw the things from miles across.

The last news report ever aired in the United States reported that, despite the best efforts, over eighty percent of the world's population had become infected with fleshers.

Life became a real life version of _The Last of Us._

And what happened next was very, very similar.

The few remaining governments of the world ordered a mass termination of all those who were infected, or presumed infected. And again, in typical zombie fashion, only a disconnection of the brain from the head would kill an infected person. But it failed. The infected were too powerful, and the government was forced to fall back in disarray.

The world went to hell. Cities were cleared and left to nature. Humanity scattered. People all over the world tried to avoid the infected and find loved ones. Some stayed in groups, resorting to ways that were…less than moral to survive. What little remained of the US government retreated back to the East Coast or to the nation's capital; many presumed them dead.

And so anarchy reined. Kill or be killed. If not by the infected, then by the people who would gladly shoot you just to get the gun off your back. No place to go. Nature slowly began to take over the towns and cities that were abandoned. The West Coast was in shambles, as it was the farthest away from what used to be Washington D.C.

Life became a survival game.

And Mari Takahashi had never been good at survival games.

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**I should have the first chapter done within a day or two,which will be much better than this prologue, I promise. But, I also have two other stories I am working on currently, so I will try to be as diligent as possible with both this, my AC fic, and my fictionpress story. If there is a delay between updates, you know why.**

**But who am I kidding, no one is going to be reading this yet. Lol.**

**See you later, guys. Thanks for viewing and leave a review if you enjoyed or have criticism. **


	2. Chapter 1

**And...I'm back.**

**I uploaded the essentially first chapter with some dialogue, and to my surprise, it was really really short. I mean, my AC stuff is usually about 5,000 words, but whatever, I guess. Hopefully, more action will make for longer chapters.**

**Well, please enjoy!**

* * *

Of all the simple, mundane things to come out of the new world, hunting was certainly Mari's least favorite.

It had been one year since the outbreak of hoarders, and now Mari Takahashi found herself still in the outskirts of what used to be California. Where there even any boarders anymore? Mari wasn't sure. Forest surrounded her on all sides, making her feel slightly trapped. She walked carefully, making sure each step she took wouldn't crunch and make every hoarder in the nearby area come charging after her. The female paused, listening for footsteps or maybe the moans of the undead. But she heard nothing, and Mari didn't know whether to be disappointed or not.

Mari crouched underneath a larger tree and sighed as she took off her backpack and dug out her water bottle. Three days of walking in this damn forest, and she still had nothing to show for it. Nothing but a ripped flannel shirt, a large cut on her cheek, and a waste of precious ammo.

She was wearing her favorite, and now only, orange and purple flannel over a simple black tank top that were both badly in need of a washing. Her hair was tied up in a bun that was slowly becoming more and more undone. And lastly, all of this with ripped jeans and a pair of sneakers that were slowly but surely falling apart.

No food. Dirty clothes. And no one to keep her company. Mari was a mess, and she knew it.

She spent the first half of the year tagging along with this other group of survivors after they had all barely made it out of Sacramento alive. There was Ben, the de-facto leader, and his best friend Chase, along with their girlfriends Lanie and Catherine. And at first, everything seemed to be going okay for the five of them. Ben and Catherine were both good shots with their pistols, both of which taught Mari to fire as well, and Chase was excellent with directions, so they were never really lost. The only thing holding them back was Lanie, who never seemed to understand the gravity of the fact that this was the end of the world. Tensions flared when Lanie nearly gotten them all killed by falling asleep on watch in the middle of the night and missing a whole group of hoarders. Ben and Chase bickered constantly, with the two girls trying to console their boyfriends, and Mari trailing along behind them, eager to survive and not be caught up in their stupid affairs.

But of course, all good things must end. One night, Mari awoke to a shot fired and Lanie shrieking. As it turned out, Chase had finally snapped, shooting his best friend in the face in front of the two other girls. Even though Catherine tried to calm Lanie down, Mari knew the damage had been done. She grabbed her pack, a flashlight, and Ben's Magnum, and fled from her former group members. As she exited the area without much sight of the hoarders, Mari could hear screams start up again, and a low thundering of growls as Chase, Catherine, and Lanie were met to the infected.

Mari still felt bad from time to time, but the pistol she had gotten from her now supposedly dead comrades was at least a good one. One that had saved her life plenty of times over the course of the next six months.

After her time with Ben, Mari found it…difficult, to say the least, to find more people to join up with. Every single other person she had met were either bandits or simply people who had lost their minds. She even had a rendezvous with what she thought was a cannibal once, but she didn't necessarily stay to find out.

And so, when all was said and done, Mari decided that she was well and truly alone. She taught herself to sleep in trees so she wouldn't have to worry about the hoarder problem while she slept. She raided supplies from unsuspecting bandits under the cover of darkness. She had even killed a person. Out of self-defense, of course. It was the only time when one of her raiding missions failed to go unnoticed before she was completely gone. They sent the biggest, nastiest piece of work to finish Mari off. But the bastard trying to cut her throat open had also slashed her arm, leaving a big cut there and drawing every hoarder from miles around onto her. Of course, one thing Mari failed to realize was that by losing their sight, the hoarders hearing and smell became that much better. It was like that one rumor that a shark could smell a single drop of blood in a swimming pool. Well, if someone started bleeding, then you could be sure that all the infected in a nearby area would be coming after you. Mari spent the next two days trying desperately to cover her wound and outrun the hoarders behind her.

And at long last, near the border of the state where she had lived most of her life, Mari couldn't help but feel a touch sentimental. Hoarders or not, it was home, after all. She wiped the corner of her mouth after taking in a long swig of water, and replaced it back in her pack. And that was when she heard the rustling.

Mari quickly drew the Magnum from her belt and spun around, only to be met face to face with a small deer. It stood ten yards away, blinking and looking extremely confused. And frankly, Mari was too. She hadn't seen a deer in months. And how one could have survived the hoarders for a full year was just as confounding.

_Well, _Mari thought, as she lined up the sights on her pistol, _Aren't I lucky then._

Mari's finger curled around the trigger. The deer cocked its head, as if it was bewildered by Mari's actions.

The female shot, and she heard the successful cry from the deer that told her she had found her mark. Yet, the scrambling hooves and swish of branches told her that she hadn't killed it.

_Shit._

Mari snatched her pack and raced after it. She cursed silently to herself, wishing she had shot it in the head or something. Despite all the months of outrunning hoarders, she knew that she had no chance to catch up with a deer.

Still, she could hear it still making that stupid noise, so it must be limping or wounded. Mari smiled; perhaps she did have a chance.

But then came a very loud cry from the deer only a few feet in front of her, and a soft thud of something hard hitting the ground. Mari screeched to a halt in front of a jumble of shaking shrubs and bushes. There was no mistaking it. That was a death cry. Maybe it fell off a cliff? Or into a trap?

Mari sighed again as she got onto her hands and knees. Slowly, she inched her way under the bushes and through to the other side. As she did, she could hear the mumble of a human voice. A male voice. The female mentally slapped herself as she inched to the edge of the bushes, which gave way into a small clearing.

Mari looked up and felt her heart plummet.

Still concealed in the bushes, Mari had a good view of the now dead deer, lying limply in the middle of a small clearing. Standing over it was a man, one of the largest guys that Mari had ever seen in her life. He must've been at least a head taller than her, maybe even two. He was pretty muscular looking, but then again, no one these days wasn't really muscular looking. He had short, ratty black hair that seemed to stand up at weird angles. He was also wearing glasses, which made Mari a little anxious. When he turned briefly, Mari could see a pair of fangs tattooed into his wrist. The man was wearing a black shirt with a blue symbol on it. She thought it was Nightwing's symbol, but Mari wasn't entirely certain. But yet, none of that compared to what was in this mystery person's hands.

The guy was clutching a goliath broadsword with two hands, which was dripping blood onto the leafy ground. What were those things called? Claymores? Whatever it was, it would be a simple death sentence if Mari revealed herself. She could see the sheath for it strapped onto his back, with his dark green backpack slung over it. Mari's eyes fell back to her prey; there was a long deep gash from where the man had swung his sword. Must've had good reflexes to kill a fleeing deer like that. Mari felt a brief rush of admiration.

It took some effort, but Mari was finally able to reach her magnum and position it for a shot. The mystery man was whirling around constantly, and Mari was positive he hadn't seen her lying in the safety of the undergrowth.

"Hey!" the man finally called out. His voice was scratchy and oddly high-pitched. Mari expected something different.

"If you want your deer," the guy motioned to the dead animal lying at his feet, "You can have it. I heard your gunshot. I can…I can find something else."

Mari lowered her pistol in shock.

"It's a big deer though," the man sighed, kicking it softly.

He was offering her deer back? Simple as? The female couldn't help the feelings of wariness and gratefulness rising in her throat.

The man tore his eyes away from the deer once more, his eyes bright behind the glasses. "My name's Joven, by the way. I mean, it's not my _real _name, but, well, everyone calls me Joven, so..."

_My God, does he ever stop fucking rambling? Scream any louder and you'll find hoarders before you find me._

This man, Joven, she supposed, finally stopped rambling about his name. He must've realized that no one cared, or no one was there. He glanced back to the deer once more, then to his sword, and called out, "You know, that this thing's only gonna attract the zombies, right?"

Mari bit her lip. That Joven guy had a point.

"So," Joven shrugged, "let's move it out of here so we cannot be attacked? I mean, I know a place we can go."

Mari still had her hands on her pistol. Was this Joven guy for real?

Finally, Joven sighed and sheathed his sword away. He grabbed the deer by its front legs and, seemingly with some effort, began to drag it the opposite way, leaving a few separate trails of blood in its wake.

Suddenly, her belly rumbled, and Mari's apathy sparked into panic. "Wait!" she called out before she could stop herself.

Joven looked up, and locked eyes with her bush, a hopeful, admittedly dumb looking smile spreading across his face. Mari cursed silently to herself and slowly crawled out of her hiding place. She put the safety back on her gun and stuffed it into her pack.

The man who had killed the deer straightened himself out, extending a hand. "Hi! Are you the one who hurt the deer?"

Mari eyed the hand hardly, and Joven withdrew it, awkwardly wiping it onto his shirt.

"I'm Mari," she sighed as she took up the hind less of the deer, "And I hope you weren't lying about having somewhere safe from the hoarders."

Joven cocked his head, "Hoarders?"

"Infected."

"I call them zombies."

"Well, good for you. Let's not get eaten."

Joven smiled that stupid dumbass smile again, and seized the front legs of the deer. He hoisted them onto his shoulders, and began to slowly guide Mari away from the clearing and back into the forest.

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**And...that was the first chapter. Next chapter will be out later. I have some other stuff to do, but give a follow, favorite, or review if you enjoyed! I know I'm not the best writer, but...well, being the best doesn't matter.**

**See you guys later and thanks for viewing!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hello once again! Thank you very much for my first review! I'm so glad you enjoyed! :)**

**I don't own anything Smosh or Smosh related. The idea and any character you do not recognize, however, are mine.**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

As they dragged their deer through the woods, Joven couldn't help but stare at his new female friend.

Well, friend was a strong word. Every single time they locked eyes, Mari would glare at him until he averted his attention back to his front. In his opinion, it was both funny and intimidating. Mostly intimidating. The girl had a gaze that pierced like his sword, and it made Joven's skin crawl. Her entire look told him "I've seen some shit, and you are nothing compared to it."

Finding her was a whole lot better than finding a bandit, at the very least.

As they trekked back through the woods, Joven couldn't help but wonder why this Mari girl was acting so…cold to him.

In the past five months, he had jumped from six different groups, all of which had been killed by the bandits. Well, there was that one time where zombies raided them in their sleep and ate four of their group, but that was neither here nor there. And Joven couldn't believe his lucky streak; every single time he managed to escape from them, only to hop onto the next group. A "hired mercenary", he called himself. And it fit; Joven could easily take out a bunch of zombies with his sword thanks to his training and his bulk. And he made friends well. The only problem was that he was awful with a gun.

Of course, all the hours playing _Call of Duty _and_ Mass Effect _was never going to prepare him for holding an actual shotgun, but the first time he fired one, the kickback was so unexpected and painful that he had to nurse a bruised shoulder for two weeks. And Joven swore he would never use another firearm so long as he still had his claymore with him.

Joven had spent most of the apocalypse trekking up and down the California border after fleeing from Sacramento, searching for people looking to get to Oregon. All six groups he was collaborating with had promised that they were heading east, and there was that whole thing about "safety in numbers." But the bandits camping out at the border were not only relentless, but had enough ammunition to supply a third world country for twenty years. Every single fucking time Joven's groups had gone to fight them, they got their asses handed to them. The ones that survived promptly disbanded the group. In the case of the last group Joven was traveling with about t weeks ago, the survivors of the fight not only lost, but decided to give themselves in.

Joven woke up the next morning cold, alone, and lost. There was nothing left but a note explaining the situation.

"Do you even know where you're going?"

That marked the first time Mari had spoken to Joven since they started walking. She sounded frustrated, and Joven couldn't blame her. The walk was long and she looked like a mess, with a nasty cut across her face and a ripped flannel shirt that was coming apart at the shoulders.

Joven nodded. "Yeah. I think we're almost there. Just a little further ahead."

He was leading her along a former forest trail, complete with panels sticking out the ground pointing out different plants and wildlife. There were still quite a few zombies lying dead along the path where Joven had slain them, drawing flies and being an overall stain on the otherwise good-looking scenery. Bullet holes dotted the trees like connect-the-dots. Mari carefully stepped over one of them, disgust showing on her face.

Half concealed in a bush, with only the feet sticking out, was a bandit. She was dead; Joven had thrown the body in there when he had killed her. She had stumbled upon him when he was walking in search of some food, and before she could say anything, Joven swung his sword. Instinctively, almost. Her look of shock was still on her face as she fell over and began to convulse. Joven dragged her into the bushes and, in an act of mercy, beheaded her. Killing her on her own wasn't enough to turn her, but zombies would still want to eat her, and she could be reanimated that way. And he wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

Still, it was hard walking along this trail and seeing the body, its' feet lying partially in the shrubbery is if she was just sleeping.

At last, the two of them came off the path to the edge of the trails into what was the remains of a campsite. The welcoming center, a one-story building boarded up with rotting wood a year ago in preparation, stood on the outskirts of the trees. A large antenna stuck out of the top. Picnic benches were orderly spaced out for eating before the world went to shit. Two or three zombies milled around in the distance near an abandoned parking lot, the cars being a maze for them to wind in and out of. Joven led Mari to the edge of the welcome center and set the front legs of the deer down in front of the entrance. A loud thud told him that Mari had done the same and was now surveying the area.

"This is where you're staying?" she asked, not harshly or scathingly. She just sounded tired. The sun was starting to set, and Joven once again found himself feeling sorry for her.

"Yeah." He breathed, placing his hands on his hips before motioning her away from the front doors, "Mind helping me?"

Joven was relieved to see that the ladder was still in his hiding place: under the dumpster around the back of the building. He slid it out, picked up the end and slowly lowered the rest of it into the waiting hands of Mari. They brought it around to the front and set it up against the building by the entrance, Mari keeping an eye on the zombies and Joven pulling out a length of rope from his pack. He tossed one end to his new companion and began to climb the ladder.

"Tie that around the middle of the deer," Joven called out to Mari as he reached the top of the welcome center.

"I know," came her biting reply.

Joven chuckled good-naturedly as he went to tie the rope around a vent and tested it. He turned to find Mari climbing up the ladder to the roof. She immediately seized the rope and began pulling and Joven, after a moment's hesitation, followed her lead. Together, they pulled their meal up the side of the building. As the deer appeared, and Joven grabbed it, Mari pulled the ladder up all the way to the roof.

Joven collapsed into one of the lawn chairs he had set up on the roof. His new home was only composed of two old lawn chairs, a tent to sleep in when the weather turned bad, a map, and a makeshift campfire pit with a spit. Home sweet home. He propped his feet on a cooler filled with uncontaminated water bottles, resting his aching legs. Joven leaned back, taking off his glasses and staring up into the dusk sky as he rubbed his face. He had been walking all day, and he was happy for a rest.

But of course, there was still the deer to prepare.

A loud squelching noise made Joven jump.

When he had managed to finally put his glasses on, he could see Mari hunched over the deer. She had pulled out a knife and had sunk it into the deer's stomach, proceeding to saw it open. It came as a surprise; Joven didn't even know she was armed. It seemed his new companion, although far from a pretty girl that needed to be saved, was a lot more dangerous than he thought.

Somewhat reluctantly, he heaved himself out of his chair and went to help Mari prepare the deer.

-X-

It was admittedly hard to not devour their dinner the minute it was taken off the spit, but Joven found the restraint to do so. Mari took small dainty bites, not once taking his eyes off of him as she sat in the other chair. She reminded Joven of an owl: unblinking and sharp-witted.

For the first time in a long time, Joven felt relaxed. His pack and sword were propped up against his chair. His feet were kicked back. And he was enjoying a nice, if not somewhat awkward dinner with Mari. There was more deer on the spit, roasting away. The pelt had been spared, and was now drying on the side of the roof. The only thing remaining was a large bloodstain, which would surely wash away in the next rainstorm. He had even found some saltines to compliment the meal and two plates and forks to serve them on. Joven knew that the smoke would likely draw both zombies and survivors, but the bandits had chased out everyone except him for miles. And the zombies were too stupid to climb walls.

"Why do you call the zombies hoarders?" Joven questioned curiously.

Mari looked him in the eye still. "Why are you all on your own?"

She was wary. And hypocritical. Fair enough. Joven hoped his hospitality was enough to break down her stoic persona, but now he had to try a different approach.

"You answer one, I'll answer another?"

Mari shrugged. "Depends on the question."

Joven snorted in amusement. "I wasn't on my own. I hopped from a few groups, but we all got split up. Been here for two weeks now. When this whole thing started, I _was _looking for my roommate Wes. Nice guy. We've been friends for about, what, six years now? We agreed to get out together, but we got split up back in Sacramento…"

Joven noticed Mari's eyes brighten at the mention of Sacramento.

"…And I've been trying to get out of here since." Joven finished. Even telling the story was tiring. He couldn't believe it had been a year since he had last seen Wes. Of course, when he had last seen him, he was totting a pistol, a shotgun, and his own sword. Joven was confidant he had made it out of their city, and that he had survived for a little bit, but whether he had made it as far as this was unknown.

Mari leaned back, looking a little more relaxed. "I call them hoarders because they travel in a horde," she stated like it was obvious, "Okay Joven, where are you heading?"

Joven munched on a cracker. "Boston," he answered brightly, "It's where I grew up. And I'd like to see if there are any other survivors on the East Coast. It'd be nice to find my family…if they're still there."

Mari narrowed her eyes. "Why so far away?"

"Hey! It's my turn to ask a question!"

For a moment, Joven could see Mari crack a smile. She waved her hand, motioning him to go on.

"Okay, where are _you _going?"

Mari set her plate down, looking distant. "Well," she began, sounding distant, "I'd like to start by getting out of this state. I've been on my own for…a little while. Then maybe I'll head east too."

"How long?"

"It's my turn, remember?"

Joven smiled and nodded, reaching into the cooler and pulling out a water bottle. Mari waved her hand, and Joven passed her one. She caught it with one hand, setting her plate down to unscrew the cap.

Mari drank deeply, then when she pulled out, she asked, "Why haven't you crossed the border yet?"

Joven frowned. He took his glasses once again off his face and rubbed his eyes. Of course Mari would want to know that. He should have chosen his words a little more carefully.

He got up, picked up the map and handed it to Mari. "There are a bunch of bandits guarding the border this way," he pointed to the map, "and they shoot on sight. Remember how I said that I as working with a few other groups? Well, we all tried to cross here. And nearly everyone died each time."

Mari snatched the map from Joven's hand, staring at it. "Go across the other sides, then," she suggested, pointing to a few other places on the map.

"They already have my number. They'll be expecting me, and then we'll be trekking one hundred miles in the other direction to get away from them. Not to mention the zombies. Besides, they comb through the woods a few times a week. If they find a campsite and not me, they'll know something's up. "

"How many times have you tried!?"

Joven offered an apologetic smile. "Um…six?"

Mari groaned, leaning back into her chair and rocking on it. Joven couldn't believe how unnecessarily exasperated she looked. She rocked back and forth on the chair before getting up, shoving past Joven, and pacing around the roof. She rubbed her face and ran her fingers through her hair, occasionally whispering things like "God fucking damnit" or "I'm fucked. I'm so fucked."

Joven turned the remaining venison on the spit a few more times before taking it off to cool. Mari stood a ways away, casting distrustful glances back at him often. And at last, as the moon finally appeared and darkness had fallen, Joven had had enough.

"Look," he began tensely, "I get you're upset, but I still need to get to the East Coast. And you want to get out of here. The bandits are gonna comb through the forests again in a few days. So if we want to get out of here, we need to move soon."

Mari whipped around, barely visible. "_We?_ Who says I'm going with you?"

But Joven wasn't derailed by her sharpness.

"Mari, if you want to get out of here," he slowly offered, choosing each word with care, "Then we need to work together. They'll shoot you if you come near the border, and they'll shoot you if they find you here. Working together is the only way we'll win."

Mari looked away, but Joven hoped she was considering. If they did split up, and Mari happened to try and cross the border at the same time that Joven did, there would be no question that she would not care about what would happen to him. Sticking together was their only option.

After a few minutes, Mari came back to her chair, looking sour. And for a moment, Joven thought she was going to refuse.

She crossed her legs and put one hand on her face, rubbing her temple like she had a headache. "Fine," she sighed, "But if we're going to do this, we need a plan. No fighting. You getting your ass whooped six times is enough."

Joven grinned again. He couldn't remember the last time he had grinned this much. Or felt this excited. "We need a team name."

"We do not need a team name."

"What about…Team Condor? Oh! Team _Super Condor._"

Mari shook her head in embarrassment, but he thought he could see the smallest flashes of a smile.

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**Next chapter, we get to see what Mari and Joven do to get past the bandits. And I'll try to make it a bit of a longer chapter that this. **

**Oh Wes. There needs to be more stories on this site mentioning you and how awesome you are. It seems that there are simply not enough.**

**Thank you very much for reading and follow, fav, or review if you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 3

**So I finally finished this chapter!**

**Thanks to all the people who followed, faved, and reviewed this story. Now, we're getting to the good stuff! Joven and Mari need to cross into Oregon, but will they get past the bandits? (I sound like that recap person on tv, ugh.)**

**I don't own these characters or Smosh or Smoshgames Enjoy!**

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Mari knew that working with Joven was going to be a hopeless endeavor even before the morning came.

They spent all night awake on the welcome center, discussing plans to evade the bandits. Most of Jovens' plans were stupid or told in good humor, but by the time two hours had rolled by, there wasn't a single good plan that had been mentioned. All of them would have the two of them wind up dead or captured, and from what Joven had said about them, ending up getting imprisoned was not a road Mari was ready to tread down.

Finally, well past midnight, Mari had to glance at her watch and determine that it was time to rest up. As she rolled over, she hoped that something would come to her. Maybe in a dream. She closed her eyes to Joven's snores, and her last thought was how their chances would be in a fight.

The next morning, Mari first heard something sizzle. Then she smelled something she hadn't smelled in months.

She got up feeling groggy. The dawn was just starting to break through, but she felt unusually warm. When she turned to her left, she found her reason. Joven had set up a skillet over last night's fire and was cooking three small eggs. A small bit of the deer meat was cooking on the other side, and Joven hummed as he poked it with a stick to turn the underside over. It smelled so good; Mari couldn't remember the last time she had eggs. It must had been before the start of the outbreak.

Joven glanced up as Mari sat down opposite the skillet. He looked well-rested, which was more than Mari could say. "Feeling better?" he asked cheerfully as he poked his eggs.

Mari ignored him. "How did you get those?" she asked tiredly, pointing to the eggs.

Joven smirked a little. "I found a robin's nest a little while ago," he recounted, looking proud of himself, "and the mother wasn't there, so I just…took them." His smirk had turned into a full-blown smile. "It's probably the worst thing I had ever done."

Mari ignored him once again and reached for her plate from last night. Joven seemed to get that she was only interested in the food at the moment and placed one of the eggs and a large chunk of venison on her plate. It took all of Mari's self-control to not slurp the eggs up, so she nibbled at them while Joven served himself. It had hints of salt and pepper in them and tasted right out of the diner that she and Peter used to go to.

"This is fucking amazing," Mari told Joven with closed eyes and a mouthful of venison. "Like, I can't believe how good this is."

"Wes used to make me cook all the time," Joven sounded wistful, "And I picked up a lot of tips from all the girls I dated before this whole thing."

Mari nearly choked from laughing at his last comment. By the time she swallowed her mouthful of breakfast, Joven was staring at her in confusion.

"I'm sorry," Mari snickered, waving her fork back and forth and curling her knees to her chest. She thought her lungs were going to pop, that's how hard she was laughing. "I just didn't expect you to have a girlfriend of _any _kind."

Joven brushed his hair up and took another bite. "Wes had a really steady girlfriend. I brought a lot of girls over."

"So you were a pimp?"

"I-I...," Joven gesticulated wildly, as if trying to grab his words, "I guess you could say that."

And then they both laughed. Mari felt tears beginning to prick the corners of her eyes. It was nice joking around, even with a guy she didn't know that much. And it even felt refreshing to feel normal for a small time. But, of course, there was never a time to be normal in this world. A guttural growl from the ground below made Mari jump. She seized her pack on instinct, swinging it over her shoulders and walking to the edge of the building. Footsteps joined her, and Joven was soon beside Mari, still holding his breakfast plate.

Four or five hoarders were down below, clawing at the base of the building. They were looking up, and even though they couldn't see her, the deep scars where their eyes used to be still unnerved her. They opened their mouths and closed them again, like they were trying to speak. Mari's hands felt sweaty as she watched them.

"They must've liked the smell of breakfast too." Joven observed with his mouth full. The hoarders moaned again as if in agreement.

Suddenly, flecks of food rained down from the roof. Mari turned and watched in horror as Joven flicked bits and pieces of his meal down to the hoarders, smiling as he did so. The hoarders below moaned some more and went in the direction of the food, clawing at the ground for it. When Joven slid a huge hunk of deer off his plate, Mari had had enough.

She reached into her pack, pulled out her magnum, and aimed it. The shot of the pistol hurt her eardrums, but she satisfyingly picked off one, two, three, four, five hoarders. All of them lay dead, a bullet put neatly through all of their skulls.

"You've had a gun?" Joven shouted in surprise, but Mari ignored him.

Mari opened the barrel and shook out the empty shells, replacing them with bullets from her pack before snapping the barrel back into place. _18 more, _she thought with annoyance. Mari hated wasting ammo, especially on something as pointless as hoarders crowding around a building. In fact…

Mari rounded on Joven, her fury bubbling over. Sensing the danger, Joven placed his food down and held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, look. I'm sorry. Just…just don't shoot me."

She replaced her magnum back in her pack with an eye roll. Joven acted like a terrified puppy, and that wouldn't do well if she needed to fight these bandits. Of course, there still wasn't a plan for how she was going to handle them. She collapsed to the edge of the building, her feet dangling over the side. In reality, she wasn't truly mad at Joven. At least, not as much as she was mad at not having a plan. She always had a plan, even if she had to make one up on the run. But Mari saw no way out of this situation she had gotten into.

Joven sat next to her, swinging his legs. Neither of them spoke, and Mari welcomed a more serious side of Joven. At least he did have a serious side. He pushed his glasses up his nose and brushed his hair through his fingers.

"I guess zombies like deer," Joven finally broke the silence. "Who would've thought?"

Of course they liked deer. The hoarders liked all meat, no matter what it was. But the hoarders preferred human meat. She supposed that when their hunger became too much, they would resort to small animals for their meal. Mari had seen eight stick-thin hoarders crowded over a single piece of squirrel. Joven's revelation wasn't surprising in the least to her. Mari cast her eyes back to the five infected below them. They were in a pile, all having gone for the flecks of deer Joven had fed to them. She could still see it on the ground. And then, very suddenly, an idea so stupid popped into her head. Mari thought it through, whispering to herself. If everything went to plan…then yes, this could just work!

Mari stood up so quickly she nearly lost her balance. But she hopped over to the skillet and brushed away some things until she found the leftover venison from last night. There has a hunk of it as large as her head, sealed in a Zip-loc bag. She opened it; it still smelled warm.

Joven had joined her by now. "Um…are you still hungry?"

Mari smiled and glanced up at her friend. "Joven. I think I have an idea."

-X-

"Is this going to work?"

"It has to work."

"You sure?"

"Joven! Shut up!"

Joven had led her to the campsite of the bandits about five miles away from the welcome center. There they were, concealed in the foliage of the forest. The broken asphalt of the road cutting through the woods lead to a bridge over a small stream, with a rusty sign saying "_Now leaving California. Hope you enjoyed you stay!"_ at the edge. Mari could already count five bandits in her line of sight behind a tree: three patrolling the bridge, and two on the other side. All of them were armed with sub-machine guns, hunting rifles, and shotguns. Mari was certain there were more somewhere else, but she wasn't sure how far their campsite was from the bridge.

Mari glanced at her partner. Joven was holding the meat and looking incredibly nervous. They had cooked the whole thing some more before they left to make it smell a little better and a little more pungent. Joven even had the great idea of putting a little hoarder blood in the bag to make it smell more appetizing to the infected, mixing it with water to look like a broth of some kind. The entire walk to the bridge, they heard the sounds of the undead behind them, stumbling in an attempt to catch their meal. The last time Mari looked, there must've been at least thirty zombies.

The female was shaken from her thoughts by Joven, who was holding the bag out to her. "We need to get rid of it!" he hissed. And he was right. She could hear the sounds of the hoarders as they began to catch up to them.

"Then throw it!" Mari pointed to the bridge. The three men patrolling the bridge were coming up the bridge, chatting idly.

Joven nodded and took a shuddering breath, holding the deer meat by the plastic edge. Mari peeked out from behind the tree to see the bandits make it to the edge of the bridge.

"Wait for it…" Mari breathed.

The bandits finally turned around, walking back the way they came.

"Now!"

The bag of meat was suddenly sailing through the air and landed with a soft thud on the middle of the bridge. Mari gave a respectful pat on the shoulder, but when they turned around, they came face to face with a hoarder.

She hadn't even heard it come up to them. It was a male, with a bloody face and extending hands and the fingernails grown out like claws.

Before Mari could draw her knife or even make a noise, there was a chopping sound and a squelch as Joven swung his sword into the hoarder, nailing it in the stomach and nearly severing it in two. It backed up, and Joven beheaded it with a good swing. Mari panted hard as the skull rolled away, and nodded her thanks to her comrade. She then followed Joven as he motioned away from their spot.

The ground gently sloped to the river and underneath the bridge. Joven and Mari hid under the concreate in the shallows of the stream, where they would be safe if the plan worked. She couldn't hear the sounds of the hoarders anymore, but she hoped more were on their way. Just then, footsteps appeared overhead. Joven, who was wiping blood and grime off his glasses, replaced them and held his breath. Mari drew her magnum, undoing the safety and waiting with baited breath.

"Hey! Guys! Look at this!" That was the first bandit.

A second voice piped up. "Where'd you find that?"

"On the bridge. All plastic wrapped and shit. Someone must've left it."

A third voice now joined in. "Ugh. What the hell is that stuff inside of the bag?"

There was a pop as the bandits opened the bag.

"Jesus! That smells fucking gross. Get rid of it."

"Are you kidding?" came the second voice again, "Derek'll have our heads if we thro-…what the hell are _those things _doing here!?"

A loud growl came from the trees where Mari and Joven once were. "The zombies?" Joven questioned. Mari nodded, motioning for the two of them to continue. The sounds of the bandits were still being heard as Mari and Joven climbed out of the bank on the other side and into Oregon and bandit territory.

"Shoot them! Fucking shoot them!"

"Why are there so fucking many of them!?"

"The meat! Throw the meat away! That's what they want!"

"Get backup! Someone fucking get backup!"

The sounds of the hoarders turned into high pitched cries as the men began to open fire on them. Mari turned around briefly to observe them; the three guys had their guns out, firing away, but there were so many undead to plow through. And the more that got shot, the angrier they seemed to become. Before long, the front lines were practically running to the three guys on the bridge, with at least forty more in tow. The first hoarder reached the nearest man, and then-

Mari was tugged away from the scene by Joven, but the shrill screams of the man and the continuation of the firing was all she needed to know. She shook her arm free of Joven's grip and they set off together in a mad dash. The two of them had to duck behind trees and under bushes as more and more bandits crashed past them, hearing the commotion down at the stream. Mari couldn't believe how many of them passed by. No small wonder Joven couldn't beat them. When they all stopped coming, Mari and Joven ran in the direction they hoped was northeast.

"I didn't think," Joven panted at Mari's side, "That that plan was going to work."

Frankly, Mari didn't either.

She was just about to joke with her friend until they crossed into a clearing. They screeched to a stop, but it didn't go unnoticed by five patrolling bandits. Joven nearly fell fast-first into one, but Mari held him back.

"Who the hel-, well… if it isn't Jovenshire." One of the male bandits spoke. He was tall, muscular, and tan, wearing a plaid shirt and a beanie and clutching a sledgehammer. A long wound ran along the side of his face, which still looked like it was healing. Joven tensed at the man's sight. Mari looked around. Two females and two other males. All holding weapons. They were screwed. So screwed.

A female bandit at his side turned in confusion. "Is that the same guy that keeps trying to cross the border?"

The bandit smirked. "Yeah."

At once, the rest of them whispered excitedly to each other and leered over them like wolves. Mari aimed her pistol at the nearest one and backed up a few paces, but with three shotguns pointed at her, she knew she had no chance at direct combat. She wasn't fast enough to evade three blasts from different guns.

"Wait," Joven held up his hands in surrender, "Russell, let us go."

"Fuck that," Russell the bandit snapped as he ran a finger along his facial scar. "See that? I got this because you convinced us to fight these guys head-on! How the hell did you even make it past the bridge? We barely made it over the first time, so how…you know what? Never mind. I'm just gonna kill you right here and now."

Mari dragged Joven by the collar back against a tree as the bandits began their barrage of open fire. The trunk shook as Mari leaned against it, with Joven breathing heavily beside her. Mari ducked around the tree and aimed a shot at the nearest person's knee. She had to retreat back behind her cover, but managed to see one of the females go down howling.

"Who's your friend, Joven?" Russell called when the shotgun fire stopped. "She's a much better shot then you are, asshole!"

Mari glanced at Joven, who still looked unshaken from his surprise and shock. Mari kicked his shin in frustration, and Joven shook his head like she had woken him from a daydream. "Do you have a gun?" Mari shouted. Joven shook his head.

"Then you better get your sword ready!" Mari shouted as the first bandit came around the tree. As soon as the leg came into view, Mari shot it, the close range of the fire blowing a large hole in the flesh. The man fell down onto the leaves, screeching and clutching his now destroyed leg. Joven, meanwhile, had grabbed a shotgun from a bandit, wrenched it out of his hands, and knocked the bastard unconscious. He tossed the shotgun to Mari, drawing his sword and going around their cover to use it.

Mari pulled out two shotgun shells from the man she had felled and quickly loaded them. She followed Joven around the tree only to be met by the bleeding face of the female bandit who questioned Russell. Her nose was smashed in, most likely by Joven, and she screamed shrilly as she grabbed the shotgun in Mari's hands. Mari clenched her teeth and, with some effort, slammed the girl into the tree, pinning her by the throat. Her eyes rolled back into her head after some time, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Mari raced to the clearing where she found Joven and Russell fighting tooth and nail with each other, sword on sledgehammer. Joven looked like he was holding his own more or less until Russell landed a vicious blow to Joven's leg. Her friend shouted and crumpled to the ground. With Russell looming over him, Mari planted her feet into the ground.

She had never fired a shotgun before, but no time like the present, right?

The kickback was so powerful that the butt of the gun punched into her stomach, causing her to double over. But the pellets found their mark, as Russell toppled over onto the ground with blood blossoming all across his blue and green shirt.

By the time she recovered, Joven had pulled himself up again, balancing precariously on one leg. When he put his other foot down, he winced. Russell the bandit wasn't moving, but Mari wasn't going to wait around to see if she had actually killed him or not. She raced to Joven and threw his arm around her shoulder. The two of them nodded to each other and limped through the trees, leaving behind Russell, four wounded bandits, and hell unleashed upon the bridge.

They traveled throughout the rest of the day, and after a while, Joven deemed his leg safe to walk on so long as they moved slowly and didn't strain themselves. Mari was wary of this, but there was no way she could carry Joven anymore, and no bandits had followed them as far as she had seen. They continued out of the forest until they came along some railroad lines heading east. Dodging hoarders for miles and miles, the two of them finally decided to stop on the top of a large hill. Mari set up a small flashlight and tore off the remaining fabric of her flannel shirt, leaving her in her tank top. She was freezing, but still began to split Joven's leg up with it and some bark from a nearby tree. Both of them were bloody and injured, but neither of them were doctors. She didn't know the extent of this leg injury, and she doubted he did either.

When the split was made and put in place, Mari sighed and collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Her pack, the magnum, and the shotgun were now on the ground next to her. Now, she needed to get through Oregon and to the east. She would have thought of more of a plan, but she was so tired. She could hardly move her arms.

Joven broke through her thoughts with a chuckle. "You know, It doesn't hurt as bad as I thought it would," he confessed, and there was a sound of rubber on gravel as he flexed his foot.

"Does it feel broken?" Mari asked sheepishly.

Joven shrugged. "Nah, I don't think so," he reassured her jokingly.

Mari laid on her back now, pondering the day. One question still stuck in her mind. "Joven?"

"Yeah?"

That guy Russell? You knew him?"

There was silence, and then, "Yeah. He was a part of my last group. Remember how I said nearly everyone died each time I tried to cross the border?"

Mari nodded.

"Well, he and a few others left to join the bandits after my last try. And I had been on my own until yesterday, when we shot that deer."

Mari nodded again in understanding.

They stayed silent for a long time. One thing about the apocalypse was that there was now no light pollution, and the stars in the sky were bright and plentiful for everyone to see. The night was never like this in Sacramento, where the lights on building were more passable for stars than the actual darkened sky.

"What are you going to do know, Mari?"

Joven's question cut through the silence cleanly and silently.

If he had asked him this question a day ago, or even this morning, Mari might've said something different. But they had somehow managed to survive a bandit ambush and made it out of California, a place Mari had been trying to get out of for a year. And now, with Joven injured, what else was she supposed to do?

"Do you really think you'll be able to survive like that?" Mari asked Joven. He grunted something incoherent, and Mari laughed. "Because I think I'll have to look out for your sorry ass now, whether you like it or not."

"So, team Super Condor is staying together?"

"Not if you keep using that name, it isn't."

Joven laughed, and Mari laughed too. They turned the flashlight off, and Joven opted to take the first watch as Mari rolled over onto her pack and drifted off to a cold, yet comforting slumber.

* * *

**So now that they're safe, they're gonna meet another person from the Smoshgames crew! **

**By the way, as you figured, everyone is going to be meeting up at different places and in different scenarios. Until they join together, no new person gets a POV. So don't expect a chapter from Ian, Anthony, Lasercorn, or Sohinki's perspective just yet. But they will come! Don't worry! For now, we'll stick with Mari and Joven.**

**Until next time! Thanks for reading and be sure to fav, follow, or review if you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hello all! Thank you very much for the kind reviews and all the favorites and follows! I appreciate them so much!**

**So here is the next chapter, which is rather lengthy. So yeah...this may be how things are like from now on unless its a filler chapter. My style of writing involves writing down every_ single meticulous detail._ But we'll see. We will just have to see.**

**Speaking of which, which Smosh games member will me see this time?**

**I don't own Smosh or Smosh games or the real life people in this story. **

* * *

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Joven always liked to put it.

The two of them, as he quickly found out, made a good team. They wandered all throughout Oregon and eventually into Idaho, where they salvaged supplies from empty towns. Mari forced Joven to have shotgun lessons everyday using whatever they could salvage from the dead and others so that he wasn't completely defenseless without his claymore. And after his leg was strong enough to walk on and keep pace with his energized friend, the two of them moved quickly from place to place.

Joven had, of course, lost track of the date and month from being alone for so long. Even so, the further east they were going to go, the colder it was going to get. They were fortunate that in one of the broken and abandoned shops that they found in Boise, there was a large collection of clothes for them to scavenge. Mari found a few t-shirts and a black jacket for herself, while Joven stuck with a gray hoodie. Downtown Boise was a ghost city, with glass shattered all throughout the streets and zombies roaming around aimlessly. The two of them barely managed to make it out with their supplies, but for what it was worth, there wasn't enough to last them a very long time.

They decided to continue heading east in the hopes of finding a better town to scavenge. A week or so went by with them passing through the ruined state, seeing cars abandoned on the side of highway 84, avoiding zombies that seemed to be everywhere, and traversing through forest and plains alike. Joven did his best to keep Mari's spirits up, but there were only so many jokes you could make about potatoes.

"Hey, hey Mari. What would a cook call a dish that was made of human feet and a delicious starchy vegetable?"

"I don't know, what?"

Joven threw up his hands. "A pot-a-toes!"

Mari groaned. "You know, Jovie, if I find a notebook, I'm gonna write down all your jokes and then when it's full, I'm going to burn the entire thing and dance on the ashes."

Joven grinned; Mari always acted like she was a total badass, and she was, but she had a lighter side to her when she wasn't stressed like she was back in California. She had taken to calling him Jovie, for instance, just randomly out of the blue. Joven couldn't understand why, but if it made her happy, then he wasn't complaining.

After a long time following Route 84 east, the two of them decided that it was time to stop somewhere for a night off the open road. Mari suggested going on a little further at Joven's first suggestion, but he insisted, pointing at his map eagerly.

"Come on, Mari! Burely seems nice." Joven begged as they approached the exit, "Quiet, out of the way. Perfect for a nice, romantic, potato filled honeymoon."

Mari opened her mouth, then closed it in an afterthought. She shoved past him, taking the lead up the exit ramp. "I just want to get off the damn road," she confessed, "so whatever. But we are staying in the first place we see. Okay?"

Joven nodded eagerly as they finally got off the highway.

Burely, according to Joven's map, was smack-dab in the middle of the Snake River Valley. And it showed. Mile upon miles of farmland greeted them, waist high weeds growing where crops used to be. The sun beat down on them in a cloudless sky, and Joven was extremely tired. They trudged along, looking for a place to rest.

A mile off the highway, they found it. A one story house was there, waiting for them. It was a deep dark blue and looked incredibly inviting, not boarded up at all. If it wasn't the apocalypse, this would have been the least interesting house in the world. But to Joven, it was paradise, sanctuary, the biblical garden of shelter-Eden.

The walk up the driveway felt like forever, but the two of them finally reached the door. It was locked.

"Shit," Mari sighed, sounding worn.

But Joven wasn't going to walk back down the road again to find another house. This was as good as they were going to get.

"Back up," Joven told her seriously, setting his pack down and shaking his shoulders.

As Mari backed away, Joven tried to recall everything he knew about breaking down doors. Okay, aim for the side of the knob, he knew that. Plant one foot and just give it a good kick.

Joven threw all his weight into his kick, and it worked. The door slammed open with a loud bang. The two paused as the door swung on its' hinges, waiting. But nothing ever came. Joven sighed with relief, then picked up his pack and stepped inside. Mari closed the door behind them.

The place was furnished like something out ofthe great depression_. _Everything was extremely old or extremely out of date. The TV was an old box, and the entire place was covered in floral patterning. But Joven hardly cared as he collapsed on the sofa, his feet dangling off the edge of the arm. Mari settled into the armchair opposite him, sighing contently and digging out her water bottle. She took a swig and handed it to her partner, who drank deeply.

"Water should be the first thing we look for," Joven panted as he handed the bottle back to Mari.

The female nodded in exhaustion but didn't move.

It took a while before either of them found the motivation to get up and look around the place. Mari started in the kitchen while Joven entered the bedrooms.

The first bedroom looked like it belonged to a fourteen year old; there were posters of old movies on the walls, which Joven respected. A PS3 was plugged into the wall under a newer TV, and games like _Portal _and _Call of Duty _and _Battlefield_ were lying on top of it. A game controller was discarded on the bed. The drawers to the place were all opened, most likely by the kid trying to find something to take with him. Joven smiled, remembering what life was like before this shit. If it were up to him, his room would look like this.

"Hey Jovie, look what I found."

Mari had appeared in the door, looking grim. In her hand were at least four bottles of _Earth Springs _water, the company that bottled the contaminated flesher water and sold it to the public. All of them were empty.

"You think-?"

"Yeah."

Joven sighed and left the kid's room, suddenly finding himself unable to be there anymore.

The kitchen, as reported by Mari, had some canned food and a few uncontaminated water bottles, but nothing else. There was a basement that even Mari didn't have the courage to check. And there was the attic, which contained stuff even more dated than the furniture in the family room. That only left the master bedroom, which was in the very back of the house.

Joven and Mari approached it very cautiously. The door was at the end of the hall, looking like a death omen. As Joven reached for the knob, sword in hand, Mari, held him back and pointed to the ground. Blood speckled and smeared the cream carpet.

Joven and Mari exchanged a glance. The female nodded, gun at the ready.

Joven swallowed and gripped the doorknob. It swung open.

The first thing that Joven noticed were the three zombies sitting in the corner under a giant window. They were leaned up against the wall, rotting away. Their smell made Joven gag. There was a mother and a father and a boy who was wearing a Superman t-shirt, his face frozen in a snarl. Dark stains on their foreheads were the only signs of killing blows. The blood that Mari had pointed out had grown into drag marks, where they ended underneath the bodies of the dead zombies. Joven dropped his sword and Mari lowered her pistol, both approaching the dead family. They didn't stir.

"Someone dragged these hoarders in here." Mari mumbled, crouched over them, 'What do you think, Jovie?"

But Joven wasn't paying attention.

Outside, across a wide field of weeds, was a giant red barn. A dark figure was slipping inside, and the door slammed shut. Joven blinked a few times. _Did I just imagine that?_

"I saw someone go into that barn," Joven announced, pointing outside.

Mari straightened up, looking confused and worried. "Are you sure?" she asked seriously.

"Yeah," Joven answered honestly, "I'm sure."

Mari eyed him, then spun around, going to exit the room. "Then let's go check it out," she announced over her shoulder.

Joven shook himself from his daze, cast one last glance at the now-still barn, and then proceeded to follow her back into the kitchen. He found her standing in front of the glass door to the porch, looking surprised and worried.

"It was unlocked," she told him as he approached.

"What?" Joven demanded, looking over her shoulder. Sure enough, the door's lock was up, and when Mari pulled it open, it did just that. The two stepped outside onto the porch, and Mari slammed the door closed behind them.

"If it was unlocked, that means someone could have been slipping in and out, grabbing supplies," Mari mused as they stepped off the wooden deck and into the weeds.

Joven nodded, eyes now fixed on the barn looming over them in the distance. He was _sure _that he had seen someone go into it. If they had been living off the supplies in the house, how long had they been here, exactly?

Mari led the way to the barn, her pistol held close to her face as she approached the door. Joven followed her with his sword out, staring around at the tall overgrown grass and weeds that surrounded them for zombies or otherwise. The two of them came to the barn doors without any trouble, however, and Joven was beginning to doubt his eyes. He was half blind, after all. Maybe the thing in the barn was just a cat, or hell, just a figment of his imagination.

"Are you sure you saw something go in here?" Mari asked, echoing his doubts.

Joven shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

Together, the two of them pushed the barn doors open. They creaked and banged against the back walls, allowing light to enter the abandoned building.

It was a simple barn; it had an upper level for hay to be stored, the entire floor was covered in straw, and the pens were all opened as if someone had let all their animals out beforehand. The only signs that someone had or was still staying there were the two corpses in the corner, their eyes covered over with scars and their teeth bared in frozen snarls. A small bloodstain on both of their temples was the only sign of a killing blow that he could see. Joven snorted and kicked some of the hay in front of him, disappointed.

Mari lowered her gun as well, looking relieved but also let down. "Someone was here," she stated, motioning over to the two zombies in the corner.

"Yeah, well, those could have been here for a while. God, it smells in here." Joven mulled angrily, kicking the hay out a little farther in front of him.

There was suddenly a light push on his ankle.

As his kick went further up, he could see the shimmer of a wire on his sneaker, nearly invisible on the floor before.

_BANG._

Joven ducked down, his hands above his head as he dropped his claymore. The sound of the gun hurt his ears, it was so close. Mari crouched down as well, aiming around the barn in an attempt to find who had shot at them. But her eyes were wide with surprise. Neither of them, fortunately, looked hurt. Over the noise of the single shot, there was the sound of something splintering.

When the ringing in his ears had finally subsided, Joven stared wildly around for who, or what, had fired at them. The first thing that caught his eye was a something smoking the top of a large stack of hay and crates to his right. Joven grabbed the tripwire and tugged at it a little. There was a small clicking noise, but the thing didn't fire again.

He glanced to his left to find that Mari had gotten up and was examining the back wall. Upon joining her, he noticed that a bullet had succeeded in going straight through the rotted barn wall and left a sizable hole at about his shoulder, or Mari's temple. It they had taken another step further, or if Joven hadn't kicked the hay out in front of him, then one or both of them could've been dead.

Mari once again echoed his thoughts as she stuck her finger through the hole, "Good thing you were playing with the straw."

Joven nodded, not really believing his luck.

"So," Mari continued, making a course for the opposite side of the barn, "what is that thing up there?"

Joven followed her, "I don't know, but whatever it was, it only had one bullet."

They approached the base of the crates and hay where the gun was. Joven carefully heaved himself up onto the lowest bale of hay. It wasn't very far up, but the path was much narrower the higher it got. He glanced at Mari, but she shook her head and turned around, keeping watch. Joven snorted and continued upward.

Upon reaching the top, he was met with a curious sight.

It was a fairly standard hunting rifle, positioned in such a way that it would be aiming for the head of the first person to cross the threshold of the barn. Joven examined the trigger, where a thin thread of tripwire had been strung in a way that would enable the gun to fire upon being pulled. Joven pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked pitifully. A few shells littered the makeshift ladder the Joven found himself on. He picked them up; one was still hot, but the rest were cold. A box of ammunition was in the corner next to the gun, with half the bullets dug out of it. Joven pulled the gun off the wires and took the rest of the ammunition with him in his pack, for safekeeping.

"Mari," he began worriedly, "I think someone _is _living here."

But she gave no response.

Joven blinked and listened for a few moments before he could hear the faint sound of punching and grunting. A shrill scream followed it: Mari's scream.

Panicked, Joven jumped down and raced for the sound, forgetting his sword but still clutching the gun. He hurried up and down the abandoned stalls, frantically searching for his friend. It was at one of the last stalls where he finally found her.

She was on the ground, pistol thrown to the side, with a small dark person over her. The hood was up, and Joven had no idea if it was a boy or a girl. Not that it mattered. The thing that mattered was that they were holding a knife over his friend, trying to bury it into Mari's heart. Both her hands were on their wrist, trying desperately to hold them back. The tip of the knife pressed against her chest, and she let out another angry scream.

Joven reacted almost instinctively, taking the butt of the rifle and slamming it against the back of the assailant's head. The figure grunted and rolled off Mari, who immediately pulled out her own knife and pounced on her enemy. Joven came to her side and aimed at the person's head, not really caring that it wasn't loaded.

The person was a guy maybe about his age. He had a sunken in face and dark bags under his eyes. There was a massive amount of stubble, but no full beard. His brown eyes were narrowed furiously, looking at Joven and then back to Mari. And he was small, _very_ small. Damn near smaller than Mari, even, and she was on the more petite side as it was. In a way, he reminded Joven of a rat, and he didn't like it. The guy was wearing a dirty dark hoodie and a purple shirt underneath. His blue jeans were ripped and his knees were bloody and scraped, the sheath for his combat knife buckled to his thigh. He didn't say anything, only stared angrily at the two of them as he tried in vain to get his weapon back.

He squirmed angrily under Mari, but the female's weight kept him pinned to the ground. "Get the fuck off me," he snarled, brushing the handle of his knife. But Mari gripped his neck with one hand and brought her knife over the guy's fingers. They fell still as the blade met the skin. Joven was about to tell Mari to stop, but kept his mouth shut. She was calling the shots now, and he wouldn't want to be on the bad side of her temper.

"Try reaching for that knife, and you won't be able to grab it at all," she hissed. The guy stopped squirming after that, but the look in his eyes didn't go away. Mari glanced at Joven and motioned with her head over to her other side.

Joven lowered the rifle and walked around his friend, his eyes on the smaller guy the entire time. Likewise, their prisoner's glare followed him as he bent down and took the knife for himself. The guy gave another desperate shove against his partner, but Mari refused to budge.

Joven slipped the knife into his belt loop. It was a nice knife; serrated near the handle and maybe about ten inches long. It would be useful to have if he ever lost his sword.

Joven had to snap back to the present, for Mari was beginning to interrogate their prisoner.

"Who are you?" Mari asked calmly, her knife now back under the guy's neck.

The dude sneered. "Go to hell."

"A name would be good before I do," Mari retorted, pressing the edge of her blade into the guy's skin. Joven's fingers tightened around the rifle as the guy's beady eyes grew wider for a split second. He glanced at Joven, then back to Mari.

"Sohinki," he finally gave in, albeit reluctantly, "Matt Sohinki. Now let me go, you crazy bitch."

Mari ignored him and turned to her friend. "Jovie, do you still have some rope? I think we should tie this asshole up and leave him here."

Sohinki squirmed under Mari in surprise as Joven set his bag down and began to riffle through it. "You're tying me up? And leaving me? What the hell is wrong with you two?"

"Well," Joven began a little heatedly as he pulled the rope out of the bottom of his pack, "You did try to kill Mari. I wouldn't be talking about what's wrong with us, Mr. 'I'm living in a barn and I'll jump on people's backs if they invade my domain'."

"You're not funny, jackass," Sohinki snapped, "So slam it."

Sohinki glowered at Joven as he knelt at his head and forced him to sit up. Mari kept the knife on his neck while their prisoner was tied up. He grunted a little as Joven tied his wrists tightly and led him to be bound to a sturdy metal pole just outside the pen. Sohinki didn't complain, but rather looked up at Joven with fury burning on his face.

Joven was just making the last adjustments to Sohinki's bindings as Mari began to wander back to the front door. He kept an eye on her as she approached the open barn doors and peeked out from the side. A grunt from Sohinki made him jump.

"You're cutting off my circulation, dick," Sohinki snapped again. Joven was beginning to grow more agitated with him. Maybe it was a good thing they were leaving him tied like this; he seemed like the kind of person that would follow you just to get revenge, no matter how long or how many supplies he wasted along the way. Nonetheless, Joven did loosen his bindings a touch, and Sohinki flexed his fingers and sighed.

"You know, you aren't going to win any favors by snapping at us," Joven replied calmly, standing up. Sohinki looked incredibly small curled up like that, with his short cropped hair barely making an improvement to his height.

The guy sniffed. "Eat a dick, asshole."

Joven smirked and approached Mari. Behind him, he could hear Sohinki struggle against his bindings. But Joven hadn't done Boy Scouts for nothing. Those knots were going to hold, and there was nothing Sohinki could do about it.

Mari was gazing out into the fields as Joven came to stand next to her. By now, the sun was starting to set, turning the sky a little gold. A few zombies ambled on in the distance near the house by the road. It had been a good haul from this place, and Joven wasn't regretting forcing the female to come with him. True, Sohinki had tried to kill her, but that didn't matter now. At least they were both still alive.

"What's that?" Mari suddenly asked, pointing her finger in the distance.

To the right of the house, there was a figure. It was growing larger at an impossible rate. Joven watched as the figure became to become more distinctive. He saw a face, then a torso, but the lower half was large, brown, and stocky.

"He's on a horse," Mari observed, "I wonder where he got it?"

"Is he a centaur?" Joven asked jokingly, taking off his glasses and rubbing them on his sweatshirt before replacing them. On a horse he was, and he was heading straight for the barn.

"Did you say he was on a horse?"

The two of them whipped around. Sohinki had stopped trying to escape and was now staring at Joven and Mari, wide eyed. Hesitantly, Mari nodded, and Sohinki paled.

"Shut the door!" he suddenly rasped, "Come on! Shut the door!"

The two of them looked at each other. Joven wasn't sure about whether or not to trust Sohinki, but there was an unmistakable urgency in his voice that was telling Joven that something wasn't right. He seized one of the barn doors, and Mari joined his process by grabbing the other. Together, the two of them slammed the barn door closed. Joven's last glimpse of the man on the horse was of him slowing his steed down only a few yards away from the barn.

Joven blinked in the dark, confused, and then there was a bright light. Mari waved her flashlight around and retreated back to the pens by Sohinki. Joven backed up slower, hearing the static of a…walkie talkie? There as an unmistakable conversation going on just outside their sanctuary. Joven found himself back next to Mari and Sohinki, the latter of whom had recommenced struggling at his rope bindings.

"Goddamnit, give me my knife back!" Sohinki hissed to Joven. Mari stared at the two guys, her eyes slits as she tried to think of a plan.

Joven flashed him a skeptical look. "Are you kidding me? You'll just try to kill us again," he snapped.

But Sohinki's face only grew angrier, his fists clenched tightly as he tried to slip them under the rope. "That guy out there is going to kill all of us if you don't give me my fucking knife back! I can get us out of here! Trust me!"

Joven glanced at Mari, whose eyes were now wide. Joven hesitantly pulled out Sohinki's combat knife, it's owner staring at it with intensity. Before he could move, there was a sudden knock on the door. Joven jumped and stared at it as a low voice spoke to them.

"Matthew Sohinki, you have until my men come here with backup to turn yourself, and whatever allies you have with you, over. If you fail to comply, my compatriots will not hesitate to roast you alive in this god-forsaken place. This is where we dig your grave, boy, and I don't care in what way you're gonna get into it."

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**Oh no! How will our fellow gamers/survivors get out of this one!? *Crappy Batman transition noises***

**I also found it unintentionally hilarious that Sohinki is using at least one swear in almost every single sentence that I wrote for him. And I'm not gonna lie, writing that Joven joke was the pinnacle of my fanfic-writing career.**

**Thanks for viewing and be sure to follow, favorite, or review if you enjoyed!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Thanks for the new reviews, follows, and favorites!**

**It's been awhile, and this is the longest chapter for this story as of yet. I'm relatively pleased with how it came out, so I hope that you guys enjoy!**

**I don't own Smosh or Smoshgames, but all characters that you don't recognize belong to me. **

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Sohinki was infuriated. Infuriated at these two assholes for not letting him go. Infuriated at Warren for tracking him down. But mostly, he was infuriated at himself for staying in one place for too long and letting himself get caught like a dumbass.

He strained against the pipe that Joven, whatever kind of name that was, had tied him to. The girl, Mari, was looking at her partner and back to Sohinki. Joven was still holding his knife, contemplating whether or not to let him go.

"I don't know," the bigger guy confessed at last. "What if you try to kill us again?"

_Warren's going to kill all of us if you don't untie me,_ Sohinki practically screamed inside his mind. Fortunately, Mari seemed to have the same idea as him.

"Joven, that guy out there's called for backup just now. We're going to die if we don't let him go." Mari pointed out, somewhat coldly. Her tone had an air of finality to it that forced Sohinki to hide a smirk.

Joven sent a quick glare at her but didn't speak. Sohinki's combat knife glinted in the minimal light, begging to cut through the ropes bidding him. Sohinki wanted nothing more than to tell Joven that he could smash his skull in whenever he wanted, but it was an utter lie. Joven had a good few inches on him, and was much stockier and better built. Even though she was shorter, Mari also wasn't someone he was eager to mess with, especially considering she had a gun with her. His throat still hurt from when she was interrogating him. Instead, he sighed in order to keep himself level. If he lost his cool, then he'd never get what he wanted. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?" Sohinki pointed out, trying to sound reasonable. "Besides, both of you could punch my lights out, even if I wanted to attack you guys. Now please hurry up. We're kinda running out of time."

Joven hesitated a bit before finally sawing through Sohinki's ropes. At last, they fell apart, and Sohinki seized the knife right out of Joven's hands. Joven flinched and grabbed his sword, but Sohinki merely slid it back into the sheath at his hip. He stood up, brushing hay out of his hoodie. How close were Warren's men by now? If they had horses too, then they were probably almost here.

Before Sohinki started, he pointed an accusing finger at the bigger guy in front of him. Joven held up his hands in surrender, but still looked peeved.

"Don't _ever_ touch my knife again," Sohinki snapped before waving them to the back of the barn, "Now help me with this. And for God's sake, be quiet."

Mari was extremely compliant as Sohinki grabbed the ladder in the back of the barn and propped it up against the second floor of the building. Perhaps she was just calculating him, waiting for his next move to see if it was going to be a stab in the back. If she was, then she'd be wasting her time. Joven, on the other hand, glared at him constantly during the same amount of time, but didn't have the audacity to speak. Good riddance.

As Sohinki motioned the two of them up the ladder, there came another galloping of hooves. It sounded like more than two. Sohinki hurried up after them as voices conversed with each other. Warren's low menacing growl was easy to pick out, but the other two were harder to pinpoint. Sohinki hoped that _he _wasn't there. Chances are, Warren was a douche and called him in anyway. What an asshole.

At the top, the three of them seized the ladder and pulled it up with them. Just as the last rung made it over the edge, the doors slammed open. Footsteps entered the barn, and Sohinki, Mari, and Joven fell silent. Nobody moved; they simply pressed themselves to the ground and kept their mouths shut.

"Matt, are you here?" Warren called out teasingly. The mocking voice made the hairs on Sohinki's neck stand on end, "Come on, we have a little surprise for you and your friends."

Joven had finally quit making that stupid "intimidating" face of his and was flashing him a quizzical look instead. Sohinki shook his head, even though he knew what it meant.

Mari leveled her pistol besides him and attempted to crawl forward, but Sohinki held her back with a shake of his head. Jesus, how did these people survive!? Between them, they had as much common sense as a gnat.

As Mari lowered her weapon, Sohinki tentatively crept up to the edge of the second floor and peered down. Warren was there with two other guys: Max and Leo, Sohinki recognized them. He must've talked to them at camp once or twice. A shadow shifted outside the door as Warren swept around the lower level. More people. Great.

Warren's eyes were narrowed in strained amusement, and his duster swept around with each step. He removed his hat, and his buzz cut barely hid his nearly bald head. He glanced around a few more times on the lower level, tutting softly to himself. Sohinki ducked back just before Warren's gaze roe up to them. He swore his heartbeat was thumping against the floorboards, making them drum. He crawled forwards again as Warren and his men opened the barn doors back up. Two more people were definitely outside, but Sohinki couldn't tell who they were at this distance.

"Last chance, Matt!" Warren called out. From the pocket of his duster, he produced two, maybe three boxes of matches. "Come out now, or we burn this place to the ground."

Sohinki, in a brief moment of cowardice, almost jumped down, but he glanced back to see Mari and Joven's reactions. Mari looked steely, a hard look plastered on her face as she met his gaze and nodded. Joven looked less composed then his female friend, but he didn't look like he was ready to bail on them either. So, Sohinki stayed still. A few seconds passed, then another few. Gradually, the silence became unnerving, almost as unnerving as Warren's gang.

Warren shook his head and tutted again. He passed a box of matched to Max and another to Leo. "Fine," he sighed, not really sounding torn up, "have it your way."

They each pulled out at least three matches, striking them until flames flickered on each of them. One handful at a time, the three men tossed the matches into the dried hay and wood, watching as they caught on fire. By the time that the boxes were done, the entire floor was set ablaze. Heat began to burn under Sohinki's stomach, and the smell of smoke became thick and sour. With a snort, Warren and the other men left, leaving Sohinki to watch as the flames crept up the walls, consuming them. The doors slammed shut, and Sohinki knew they were locked out.

The three of them stood, brushing hay off their shirts. "Well, that was pointless," Mari snapped. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

Sohinki barged past her, trying to retain his temper. "I told you, I have a plan." He retorted hotly as he walked to the back of the barn. Footsteps sounded as the two others followed him.

Tucked away into a corner was another large mound of hay that Sohinki began to pull apart. After a few seconds of this, he had to stop; it was getting too hard to breathe and the heat was sucking out all of his energy, making him feel sleepy. "Well," he snapped to the other two, who were just standing idly as the fire burned closer and closer, "are you going to help me?"

Joven scowled before coming to his side and grabbing a few bales of hay, shoving them away. By the time they had cleared away enough straw, the place had become a furnace, almost unbearably hot. And behind all the hay was -.

"It's just a wall," Joven exclaimed, his voice rising to almost a girly shrill, "Are you trying to fuck us over, or not?"

Sohinki wanted nothing more than to punch Joven, but he instead settled for a swift kick into the wall. His foot went right through the wood, sending a huge chunk sailing out into the open.

"I've…set up…some hay at the bottom," Sohinki grunted between kicks. "So help me…if you…don't…_mind._"

Joven's lip sunk into his mouth and back again before he joined Sohinki's side once more and began kicking as well. Together, they cleared a sizable hole in the back of the barn. With Joven's brute strength, the job certainly went a lot easier as Mari looked on behind them. From the top of the barn, Sohinki could see how far the former cornfields, now simply a maze of weeds, stretched out. And at the end… that would be their goal. Get across the field, and get to freedom. But there were sure to be walkers in there. They'd have to keep together, or they'd get eaten all alone. As much as Sohinki didn't like either of these two people, getting eaten by walkers wasn't necessarily a way he wanted to go down.

As soon as the hole was big enough, and as soon as the flames began to burn against his skin, Sohinki crawled through the hole. Below it, about ten feet down, was a large pile of hay. It was a good thing he had the foresight to set up this escape plan beforehand, or this wouldn't have ended well at all. Head first, he pushed himself out and fell deep into the pile, the straw cushioning him. Sohinki scrambled out before Joven crashed down and squashed him, plucking out more hay as he did so. Sohinki cursed inside his head: if he ever saw another farm or another inch of straw again, then it would be too soon.

Mari joined the two guys at the bottom, and together the three of them retreated back into the rows of corn behind the barn. Sohinki's heart was pounding in his chest, and he was sweating from heat and fear.

The three of them stopped on last time when they heard the sound of something crunching. The barn, now engulfed in flames, had begun to collapse. Sohinki pulled out his knife as building fell into itself completely, falling into a low pile of smoking red and orange rubble. Through the heat and smoke, Sohinki could see horses. They had maybe an hour to get away, plenty of time, before Warren and his cronies discovered that they hadn't burned alive.

"Look out!"

Sohinki didn't have time to heed Mari's warning before a walker came bursting through the corn. He barely had time to brace his hands on its' decaying shoulders before it slammed into him. The point of his knife sunk deep into it's shoulder, but that hardly slowed it down. They both fell over, the walker snapping inches above him. Sohinki shrank back to avoid the saliva coming from it's mouth and tried to push it off, but his strength was failing him. The walker's scabby face had skin hanging off it, and it's claws swung wildly, shredding the trampled corn.

The thing was inches away from taking a chunk out of Sohinki's shoulder before it suddenly fell limp on top of him. Sohinki barely registered the loud crack of the gunshot as the walker stopped moving and died for the last time, mouth agape and arms swinging uselessly.

Mari stood above him, her pistol smoking. The weight of the walker rolled off of him as Joven pushed it off and offered a hand to the smaller man. Sohinki refused and shakily clambered to his feet, wrenching his knife out of the walker. The walker had a large bloody hole in it's head, not moving anymore.

"Run!" Sohinki demanded, shaking walker slobber off his arms and jacket.

The two nodded, Mari taking the lead as the three of them continued further into the weeds. Sohinki dared another glance back, just in time to see Warren and his men mount their horses. "They're coming!" Joven called down, echoing his fears.

Mari turned around to see, but at that moment, another walker chose to come crashing back through the fields, lumbering in their direction with a snarl. This one was fatter than the first, with a bloody mouth and various blood marks like war paint.

Mari screeched to a halt, aiming her gun again, but Sohinki lashed out, grabbing her weapon and effectively restraining her. Amid Mari's cursing, the walker broke into a sprint, only to be beheaded by Joven's sword. The head rolled away into the weeds, and he body crashed to the ground a foot from where they stood. Joven's panting, Mari's coughing, and the sound of hooves were the only things that Sohinki was registering.

Mari rounded on him, shaking free from her grip. "What the fuck w-"

But Sohinki had had enough of this. Warren and his men were close by, and they would catch up to them in a few minutes, maybe less. "Look, I know!" Sohinki shouted, exasperated. Mari closed her mouth angrily, as did Joven. Thankful, Sohinki held up his knife. "Okay, I know. But Warren's coming."

"You still haven't explained who that is." Joven grumbled

Sohinki chose to ignore him. "We need to split up. We make too much noise together."

Mari and Joven exchanged a glance, but the female pocketed her pistol and took out her knife. Joven held up his sword as if in silent agreement.

"Hand me the rifle," Sohinki requested. Mari gave him a hard look but handed it off reluctantly. Joven looked ready to argue, but said nothing. "And give him that shotgun," Sohinki ordered, pointing to the weapon that hung from the female's side. Again, she complied. At least now, they were all armed with melee and distance weapons.

"The fields end a ways over that way, so head for there." Sohinki motioned over their heads to the distance. He was met with nods. By now, the sound of hooves was growing distinctly louder. It wouldn't be long before Warren found them. In fact, it was probably any moment.

Sohinki took off to his right, crashing through weeds and dried cornstalks until he found a deserted row and made a break for the end of the field. His breath was now the only thing in his ear as he clutched the knife and adjusted the strap of the rifle on his back. A little ways ahead, walkers blocked his path, so he veered back into the corn on his right. The sounds of horses approached from his left, and Sohinki forced himself to hide back into the corn. Leaves scratched his skin, but it was far better than being shot. He pulled up his hood too; it was purely aesthetic, but it made him feel safer for some reason.

The leaves rustled, and a man on a horse pushed his way through the maze. It wasn't Warren: it was Max. His shaggy black hair hid his eyes, and his horse snorted in discontentment. It was probably thirsty, or maybe it just hated Max. The guy wasn't pleasant, that he knew. Sohinki pressed himself further back into the plants, hoping against hope that there weren't any walkers behind him. Max and his horse slowly clomped past him, Max scanning the tops of the fields and ignoring the lower sections where his target was hiding. When the tail of the horse swung out of view, Sohinki crept back out into the open. Max was moving forward, not noticing.

Sohinki rushed forward and grabbed the back of Max's shirt, forcing him off the saddle. Max blinked in what he thought was surprise, letting out a small scream before Sohinki's knife plunged into his heart. It wasn't satisfying, killing his former friend, but after what had happened, Sohinki found that it simply wasn't worth it to keep any of them alive. The man cleaned his knife on the dead guy's shirt and stood up. _Let the walkers get him,_ Sohinki thought, disgusted.

A nervous whinny from the horse caused him to whip around.

Five walkers were advancing on them, guttural growls and awkward lurching combining into a terrible force. Sohinki forced himself back under control and seized the reins of Max's horse, saddling himself. He gave the animal a kick, and it moved without complaint. As the galloped away, Sohinki turned back; three of the walkers had approached Max's corpse, and the other two were slowly giving up. One of them turned around to their free meal as they came out of view. Rows of plants became blurs as he glanced wildly around, steering the horse in and out of walkers.

Another brief scream that was silenced told Sohinki that someone else had found their target as well. Sohinki slowed his horse down just enough to see Mari pull herself up, giving a kick to another unseen enemy before racing away herself about ten rows to the left of Sohinki. Joven was still nowhere to be seen, but he was probably alright. Sohinki kicked his horse again, keeping one eye on Mari.

At last, the plants fell away and Sohinki and Mari burst into the open. The horses slid with whinnies of protest, but managed to stop themselves before falling over. Mari and Sohinki trotted over to each other. Mari's face was full of concern.

"Where's Joven?" she asked, eyes wide with panic. Blood splotched her t-shirt, and some was across her cheek. Sohinki shook his head and absentmindedly rubbed his cheek. Mari wiped her face in response, grimacing when her palm came back red.

A shout distracted the both of them. Coming through the fields was Joven in a full sprint. A few moments later, Warren trampled out of the maze, his dark horse galloping and gaining speed on the poor guy. In his hands was Joven's shotgun. He must've tried to kill Warren and botched it. Something Sohinki could understand. Joven glanced wildly back, but Warren was going to catch him in a matter of heartbeats.

Mari gasped and kicked her horse as if she was going to try to intercept him, but Sohinki had the rifle. He pulled it off his back and loaded a single shot, aiming it. One chance. Warren was nearly on top of Joven now, the shotgun bouncing up and down.

The gun jerked back, a loud ringing in his ears. The horse let out a scream, if horses could do that, and collapsed, taking it and it's rider with it to the ground. Joven threw himself to the side, landing hard but safely. Now it was Warren's turn to scream as the horse rolled on top of him. Eventually, all three of them stopped entirely, Joven panting hard and Warren hidden by his horse.

Sohinki lowered his rifle and kicked the horse softly, prompting it into a trot. By the time he reached the mess he made, Mari had unsaddled and was urging Joven to get up, checking his arm. But Sohinki wasn't interested in either of them. He got off his horse, the rifle now returned to his back, and walked around the now dead horse. Warren, trapped under it's bulky mass, lay shaking on the ground, hat fallen off and blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. His feet, just visible under the horse's other side, were still. Sohinki was no doctor, but he knew a paralyzing injury when he saw one.

Warren's eyes burned with hatred as Sohinki pulled out his knife and crouched next to the man. His lip curled. "Well, little Matt shot the horsey," he taunted. "What're you going to do now? Huh, Mattie?"

Sohinki's hand curled around the handle of the knife. In all honesty, he wanted nothing more than to slit the man's throat. It'd probably be due to mercy at this point. And that was what he did. Sohinki, without hesitation, plunged the knife into Warren's heart. The other man coughed blood, ruining his duster, and let out a sort of sigh. His eyes became clouded, and his head rolled back.

Sohinki cleaned his knife on Warren's clothes and sheathed it as he stood up, glancing back to Mari and Joven. Both of them were saddled, to his surprise, and were looking at him like they were waiting for him. Mari looked stone-faced again; Sohinki supposed that was just how she was, and Joven looked like a mess but with no serious injuries. Sohinki blinked and saddled himself again on his horse. With a nod, the three of them galloped away from Warren and the farm.

A shout forced Sohinki to turn around.

The remaining two men appeared out of the hay. One of them was Leo, who raced to his fallen leader with a shout. The other locked eyes with Sohinki, and even at this distance, Sohinki couldn't believe how hard it was to look him in the face. His brother was watching him, but not giving chase. There must've been disappointment in there. Maybe understanding? Hatred? Relief?

Sohinki shrugged to himself and turned away from his brother for the last time, choosing to follow Mari and Joven into parts unknown.

-X-

It took a long time of traveling by horseback to make it to a resting point. The three of them finally decided to stop at a small river in the middle of God-knows-where Idaho south of route 81. When they had finally decided that the remains of Warren's gang wasn't coming after them, they split up into their menial tasks. The horses were tied up and fed. Joven sat up against a tree, resting after tending to the animals. Mari was washing their clothes in the water, dressed in a new t-shirt and jeans. Sohinki kept watch with the rifle as he sat beside her, scanning the area to keep the walkers away. He picked at the bolt handle, annoyed. Sohinki hated guns. Everything about them sucked. Sure, he used them; he wasn't a pussy. But he wished his knife could somehow double as a boomerang; if so, he would be unstoppable.

"You know, you never did explain who that guy was." Mari's voice snapped Sohinki out of his thoughts. Her icy calm voice was rather unnerving, and she didn't even look up from her washing as she asked him the question.

Sohinki sighed, setting the rifle down. He owed them an explanation, at the very least. "When this whole thing started, my brothers and I were on our own," he began, picking at the grass. "So we wandered together for a little bit. Our parents were living in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, but I doubted they survived all this shit. It was just us. But we didn't know how to shoot guns or anything like that. Nearly died, like, ten times because of the walkers. So when we found that guy, Warren, and his group, we kinda just…latched on, I guess."

Mari nodded to show she was still listening as she picked up Joven's hoodie and dunked it.

"That all happened about three months into this stuff. Barely escaped the government raids before they went back across the country. It was alright at first. I mean, Warren's group taught us how to shoot and even gave us some decent weapons. The only rule was you couldn't disobey the boss. Now look, my brothers and I weren't stupid. We knew what kind of game he was running. Shooting people for their stuff. Killing other guys publically if we didn't listen. I mean hell, I even heard about a time when Warren set this hospital on fire, full to the brim with people, because they didn't give us any supplies." Sohinki's voice broke off, so he steadied himself and kept going. "They all were forced to stand there as it all burned and shoot anyone that managed to survive."

Mari didn't seem fazed. "Where were you for all of this?"

Sohinki grimaced. "Well, my one brother was a doctor, so he never went to fight or anything. And Warren mostly used me for tactician stuff. Planning out routes and everything. My other brother was the fighter. They gave him the whole rundown: taught him fighting, shooting, climbing. Basically trained him like a marine."

"And where'd it all go to shit?"

Sohinki bit his lip before continuing. "Well, there was this one night…my older brother, the doctor one, was trying to save this guy who'd been bitten by a walker. He was dying, mutating right in front of him. I know, I was there."

Mari looked up for the first time, her eyes narrowed. "Let me guess," she interjected. "The guy turned, bit your brother, and then you had to shoot him because he was infected. Then you got ousted for killing your brother. Am I right?"

Sohinki raised an eyebrow. "No, you're not right. That's right out of a zombie movie. This is real life."

Mari grew a little red with embarrassment. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Sohinki sighed, waving her off. "But no, it didn't happen like that. My brother gave him a lethal dose. Said he wanted to end his suffering as cleanly as possible. Just injected it right into the forearm and the guy was…gone. No walkers. No eyes sinking back. Snuffed out like a candle."

Mari glanced down as Sohinki continued.

"After that happened, Warren and my brother got into an argument. He claimed that my brother had gotten the guy bit on purpose, or some shit like that. To be honest, it happened so long ago that I don't even remember the reason. Bottom line is; Warren made a whole big deal about killing my brother. Tied him to a chair and beat him up until his face was smashed. Then just shot him in the head. Quick and painless. Didn't need to make a scene like that, but he did. An-"

"Sohinki, you're shaking.

Sohinki looked down to see that Mari was right. His hands were trembling with fury, and his eyesight as going in and out. He took a few deep breaths to get himself back under control. Mari was glancing at him worriedly, and Sohinki returned her concern with a nod.

"After all of…that, I decided that I couldn't stay any longer. I had to leave. So I took my brother's knife and got out. But it turned out that Warren had another rule I didn't know about. He called it 'hunt the traitor'. And I'd been on the run ever since. From Boise, I think. Everywhere I go, Warren and his asshole posy always found me."

"Joven and I passed through Boise," Mari commented off-handily, her washing abandoned to the side. "The place is a wreck. Did you guys seriously stay there?"

"For close to eight months, yeah. Guess it's a good thing you guys came when you did. You'd have gotten killed otherwise."

"We nearly did anyway. Place is overrun with hoarders now," Mari spat. She glanced at the knife, the holster buckled at his thigh. "What about your other brother?"

"He…I don't know what happened to him." Sohinki quickly improvised. He had hoped that Mari would've overlooked that small little detail, but she was clearly more observant than he gave her credit for. The female looked like she bought it, so at least now truth would stay hidden for now.

Mari had now returned to her washing, but she looked unfocused now. "I'm sorry, Sohinki. About your brothers."

"Thanks. It's alright, really."

There was a long silence. Finally, Mari, broke it off. "You're always welcome to stick with us, you know. Only if want to."

Sohinki leaned back a little, propping himself up on his elbows. He glanced back at Joven, still sound asleep. The guy had a rough few days. As much as Sohinki didn't really like him, he wasn't the worst person he'd ever come across. And Mari appeared to trust him. She trusted the both of them, it seemed. She was a valuable partner, quick on her feet and able to hold her own. And there wasn't really a point in sticking alone anymore. All that had gotten him was two months of being chased through the state. Sohinki was ready for a change of scenery.

"I guess I will." Sohinki responded lightly. He glanced back at the female, just to gauge her reaction.

But she had returned to her washing. The sounds of birds was now the only thing in the air.

* * *

**Aw. So now it's a group of three. (Damn, Sohinki's prospective is fun to write. He's such a sarcastic asshole: it's a dream. I also like to toy with the idea that Joven would get on Sohinki's nerves, even with the world ending.)**

**Yeah, sorry. I don't know Sohinki's brothers names, where he's from, or which one of them is a doctor. I just found it funny if he was from the dead midwest, and I also didn't want all of the six to come from California, hence why Joven is from Boston. You'd think they'd all run into each other if they all lived in Sacramento.**

**The next member will be joining the group in a little bit next chapter, but maybe not in the way you'd expect...**

**Thanks for reading and please follow, fav, or review if you enjoyed!**


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